'Hoarder' Philipe Brough, 54, who hid his dead mother's body in a freezer for six months as he was afraid he would be evicted from her flat, was spat on as he arrived at Portsmouth Crown Court today

A 'hoarder' hid his dead mother's body in the freezer for six months because he was afraid he would be evicted from her flat, a court heard today.

Philipe Brough, 54, concealed the body of 90-year-old Louise Brough in the freezer at her home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, after she died of natural causes in February last year.

He then kept it there for half a year so he could continue receiving her benefits - including her pension, income support and carer's allowance.

Mrs Brough's frozen body - still dressed in nightclothes and wrapped in a sheet - was discovered by authorities in August, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

Now, Brough, who was spat on by a member of the public as he arrived at court today, has been handed an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to preventing a lawful and decent burial of his mother.

Wearing a beige suit, white shirt, and blue tie, he also confessed to failing to disclose her death to the Department for Work and Pensions in a bid to continue claiming the benefits, including £5,390 of her pension.

Martyn Booth, prosecuting, said Mrs Brough, who was born in France, had moved to the flat in Tyseley Road with her son, then aged 11, in the 1970s following the death of her husband.

He said that, in recent years,
Brough had given up his job and acted as a full-time carer for his mother, who had become bed-bound and was only occasionally seen out of the
flat.

Concerns about the pensioner's whereabouts were raised
when Portsmouth City Council asked her and her son to temporarily move out of the property as work needed to be carried out, the court heard.

Residents later told council staff that
they had not seen Mrs Brough - who suffered from a number of medical
problems, including dementia - for some time.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

Mr Booth said that Brough had appeared
'evasive' when asked about his mother, before refusing council staff
access to the property - prompting them to call the police.

Guilty: Brough (pictured, left and right, arriving at court today) concealed the body of 90-year-old Louise Brough in the freezer at her home in Portsmouth after she died of natural causes in February last year, the court heard

Earlier appearance: He then kept it there for half a year so he could continue receiving her benefits - including her pension, income support and carer's allowance. Above, Brough is pictured at an earlier court appearance

'Brough was described [by police] as acting very much erratically and obstructively when the police were in the flat,' he said. 'He told the officers that his mother, who they plainly wanted to see, was at his aunt’s property in London.

'They
described him as seeming one moment as very calm and the next getting
irate for no reason, claiming the police were invading his mother’s
privacy by asking about her whereabouts.'

Officers arrested Brough on suspicion of
murder at around 5.35pm on August 13 after discovering his mother's body
in the freezer, the court heard.

Secret: Mrs Brough's frozen body - wrapped in a sheet - was discovered by police in August, the court heard

However, a post-mortem examination later revealed the elderly woman had died of natural causes.

Mr Booth said police had found the
flat in Tyseley Road to be in 'a state of disarray' - adding that it was the type of place 'one would have associated with as a hoarder'.

'The flat contained a large amount of property cluttering up most of the space in
it,' he said. 'It was described as typical of the type of person one would have associated with as a hoarder.'

Sentence: Brough has been handed an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to preventing a lawful and decent burial of his mother, as well as fraud

He added: 'As they [the police] cleared items out of it, they found in the corner
of a room, hidden behind a mattress, an upright freezer which had been
covered by a large cardboard box.

'The freezer was described as being
in working order. They found it was plugged in, with the power lead concealed behind various pieces of wood on the floor.

'Industrial tape was placed across the door seals, all designed to prevent the door opening accidentally.

'When
the freezer was opened, it revealed the dead body of an elderly white
female dressed in her nightclothes. The body was described as frozen
solid and was wrapped in a duvet or sheet.'

Mr Booth said Brough - who had full access to his mother's bank accounts - had found the elderly woman dead in her bed at around the end of February or beginning of March.

Since then, he said the defendant had falsely claimed about £5,390 in benefits - although he had since managed to repay £2,000 of this.

Matthew
Jewell, defending, said Brough had a history of depression and had
panicked when his mother had died.

He said his client's primary concern was a
fear that he would lose his home following his mother’s death and he
had not set out to commit fraud.

'This is not a wicked or evil offence, it’s an offence borne of distress, depression of an emotional breakdown,' he said.

Sentencing
Brough, Judge Roger Hetherington told him he believed he had acted out of an 'emotional inability to cope' with his mother's death.

'It seems that you were quite unable to cope with that and in your own terms "panicked",' he said.

'Part
of that panic you believe was a realisation that as a result you might
have nowhere to live, certainly in the immediate future.

Mrs Brough's frozen body - still dressed in nightclothes and wrapped in a sheet - was discovered by authorities in August, Portsmouth Crown Court (pictured) heard

'What you then did was quite extraordinary and really inexcusable. You
bundled her body, wrapped in some sort of duvet cover, into a freezer
which you then taped up with industrial tape, concealed within a
cardboard box and then blocked up with a mattress within the living area
of that flat that you and she had occupied.

'You
bundled her body, wrapped in some sort of duvet cover, into a freezer
which you then taped up with industrial tape'

Judge Roger Hetherington

'You told no one about
it and went on claiming the benefits that she would have been entitled
to and you would have been entitled to had she continued to live.'

Judge Heatherington added that Brough's deception over his mother's whereabouts had been an 'aggravating' feature in the sentence.

'I cannot overlook the fact that the vast majority of people
who suffer a bereavement find themselves in a position of emotional
turmoil.

'They find it difficult to come to terms with what has happened too and do not know how best to deal with it. But a person's death has to be properly and respectfully dealt with.

'Despite the mitigation in your case, the consequence must be that the public expectation is of a prison sentence.'

Brough has been handed a 12-month supervision order, ordered to pay £750 costs and enrolled on an employment training programme.